TORONTO — Canada’s air-traffic controller is lowering its service charges by an average of 7.6 per cent, a move it says will save airlines about $100 million next fiscal year.

Nav Canada announced Monday that it will reduce its base rates by 3.9 per cent on an ongoing basis and will add a temporary one-year reduction of 3.7 per cent beginning Sept. 1. This is the third time the company has lowered its fees since 2006.

Ottawa-based Nav Canada was founded 20 years ago when it purchased the country’s civil air navigation system from the federal government for $1.5 billion. Its mandate states that it can only charge airlines enough to recover its costs.

“These charges enable us to meet our cost-recovery mandate by aligning our revenues with our costs going forward,” CEO Neil Wilson said in a statement. “Strong traffic growth, coupled with cost controls and targeted strategic investments in the air navigation system have put us in a position to deliver savings to customers while increasing our planned investments in people, technology and facilities.”

Nav Canada charges airlines that take off and land in Canada, as well as those that pass through Canadian airspace, for the use of its services. Charges are based on aircraft weight and distance flown.

For example, a Boeing 747-400 en route from Seattle to London weighs 395 tonnes and will pass through 3,787 kilometres of Canadian airspace. Under the new fee structure, that airline will pay $4,657.84 to Nav Canada for a round trip, a drop of 10.9 per cent.

By comparison, a smaller Airbus A319 en route from Calgary to Vancouver weighs 70 tonnes and passes through 555 kilometres of billable airspace. That airline will pay $1,674.36 for a round trip, a decline of 4.3 per cent.

The National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC), which represents the country’s largest airlines, said it welcomed the move.

“Canada’s user-pay approach and downloading of government taxes, fees and other charges on airfares has resulted in Canada having a very expensive aviation infrastructure,” NACC executive director Marc-André O’Rourke said in an email. “Nav Canada’s decision is very constructive and progressive. We encourage other stakeholders to continue their efforts to make our aviation sector more competitive.”

Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd. also praised the announcement, saying the lower fees will help Canadian airlines better compete on the global stage.

However, both companies indicated that the lower fees would not necessarily result in lower airfares.

“As for fares, they are dynamic and increase and decrease on an ongoing basis for a variety of reasons including general market conditions, competitive factors, supply and demand, local fees and taxes (such as airport improvement fees), regulations and, importantly, foreign exchange,” Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur said in an email.

“The impact of this reduction and its relationship to airfares, which are currently at a three-year low, remains to be seen in light of market forces, the continuing weak Canadian dollar and the dynamic nature of airline pricing,” said WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer.

Nav Canada served as a model for U.S. politicians who argued the country should consider privatizing its own air-traffic control network earlier this year. That proposal died in the Senate, but could revive next year when the Federal Aviation Administration’s mandate comes up again for reauthorization.

Since it was privatized in 1996, Nav Canada has invested more than $2 billion in infrastructure, cut staffing levels by 25 per cent, improved its safety record and become a global leader in technology.

The logo is highly visible on the men’s clothing, just as it is on the women’s line.

Lululemon’s men’s “ABC” pants, for example, have a visible logo just behind the left knee.

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Visible logos have gone out of style in recent years. As a prime example of this shift, Abercrombie & Fitch — which built its entire business on selling clothes emblazoned with the brand’s name — was forced to abandon its logo strategy last year as sales plunged.

Lululemon’s visible logos are more discreet than Abercrombie’s, and women don’t appear to mind advertising the brand. At an average price of US$98, the pants are expensive — and for that reason, Lululemon has become a status symbol for many women.

But Lululemon’s logo strategy hasn’t had the same effect on men, according to analysts. Despite the recent growth in its menswear line, Lululemon is still widely perceived as oriented toward women. Some men have been deterred from wearing it, as a result, and the logo doesn’t help.

“Not a huge fan of the logo that sticks out like a sore thumb,” one Lululemon customer wrote in a review of the “ABC” pants.

A few Business Insider employees tried the pants and came away with the same reaction.

“I wouldn’t like it if Levi’s had a big Levi’s logo on the pant leg, let alone if a company that’s mostly known for women’s clothes,” said Christian Storm, Business Insider’s visual features editor. “If Lululemon people out there are listening, take that off. It looks stupid.”

Video producer Sam Rega said the logo made the pants look too athletic.

“The biggest problem that I had with these pants was the logo,” Rega said. “When people see that, it would be a dead giveaway that these are more of athletic pants, and that is a negative for me. I don’t want people to think I am wearing that casual of a pant.”

Carolyn Beauchesne, who authors the blog Lululemon Addict, suggested that Lululemon return to a former, more rugged logo for its menswear.

“It was definitely more masculine looking than the current one,” she writes.

According to Lululemon’s website, the logo was designed when the name of the company was still undecided.

“The Lululemon name was chosen in a survey of 100 people from a list of 20 brand names and 20 logos,” the company says. “The logo is actually a stylized ‘A’ that was made for the first letter in the name ‘athletically hip,’” a brand name that was later rejected.

Graphic designer Dan Redding says the whole logo needs a makeover.

“This logo doesn’t bear much relation to Lululemon,” he writes on his blog. “The ‘A’ doesn’t represent their primary name, the ‘woman’s hair’ interpretation is a bit of a stretch, and the logo doesn’t communicate anything about athletics. In short, it feels like it was designed for a different name, because it was.”

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